Name: Scotch Broth
Ingredients: 2 pounds neck of mutton; 2 quarts cold water; ½ to ¾ cup barley, soaked overnight; 2 carrots, chopped; 1 turnip, chopped; 1 onion, chopped; 2 potatoes, chopped

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

Wash and cut the mutton into pieces.
Put the meat and bones into a kettle with cold water and bring to a boil.
Add the soaked barley and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours until the meat is tender.

Add vegetables and serve

Add the chopped carrots, turnip, onion, and potatoes and cook until the vegetables are soft.
Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together629 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton: Provides rich meaty flavor and gelatin that gives the broth body as it simmers.
Barley: Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding a chewy texture.
Potatoes: Soften during cooking and break down slightly, adding body and mild sweetness to the broth.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and color while holding their shape after long simmering.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, carrot, turnip, potato):

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, carrot, turnip, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.